West Ham 1 United 2: Verdict

IT was always going to be an enormous hit-and-miss ask of a young side stricken with inconsistency to produce a suitable performance befitting the George Best memory, but Wayne Rooney took the responsibility to heart at Upton Park.

IT was always going to be an enormous hit-and-miss ask of a young side stricken with inconsistency to produce a suitable performance befitting the George Best memory, but Wayne Rooney took the responsibility to heart at Upton Park.

You don't know what you are going to get from the Reds these days, even when they need to create a display to save their reputations in difficult times at the club.

Are you going to get the guts of the Chelsea victory in the wake of such damning fall-out from the dire efforts against Middlesbrough and Lille?

Would they summon up the flamboyance and sublime finishing of the Charlton win at the Valley just 24 hours after the chaos to morale caused by the exit of Roy Keane?

Or would they serve up the paucity and drudgery of the stalemate against Villarreal in midweek when United's Champions League future was seriously hanging by a thread?

Of course, to produce a serious tribute to Best, the footballer, it had to be something liberally sprinkled with out-of-the-ordinary genius, but Rooney provided it.

The 60s generation had their Best memories forever imprinted on their minds. Succeeding generations might have wondered if the Best phenomenon had grown wings over the years and was exaggerated by time.

Forefathers

But the beguiling archive footage of bewitching Best in his pomp that has been featured in countless TV tributes since his death on Friday have convinced everyone it wasn't the mind playing tricks on their forefathers. The Irishman really was, as Sir Bobby Charlton described him, a footballing god.

Once again it was a huge burden on some young shoulders to come up with a display worthy of paying homage to Old Trafford's Hall of Fame number one. However, Rooney thrives on challenges in the way Georgie took on all-comers.

Before the lumps had subsided in many throats and tears were wiped away from cheeks, United were in trouble and realised West Ham's respect ended with the minute's applause for Best.

Playing poignantly in the all blue strip Best wore on one of his most memorable occasions in the 1968 European Cup final and wearing armbands, United's early form suggested they'd been swallowed up by the emotion of the day.

Rio Ferdinand had received his own extremely warm welcome back to the club he left exactly five years ago to the day, but after 55 seconds he found himself trying to retrieve a situation after cover on his right side went AWOL as Matthew Etherington tore down West Ham's left and stroked the ball behind Rio for Marlon Harewood to steer home.

There were so many potential ironic storylines for this match with the Ferdinand family in opposition, 38-year-old Teddy Sheringham hoping to cause his former employers damage, and Roy Carroll in the Hammers net aiming to keep his new club's defence intact.

Prominent

Carroll, a less famous product of Northern Ireland than Best, went about the business of ensuring his part in the tale would be more prominent than anybody's.

Carroll's attempts to stake a claim as Peter Schmeichel's long-term successor at Old Trafford was blighted by his embarrassing high-profile blunders, but he had more than his fair share of Steady Eddie days with United and this was one of those for West Ham.

After 11 minutes the Irishman defied Ruud van Nistelrooy and a minute later he was doing the same to Paul Scholes.

Rooney finally ruined Carroll's heroics three minutes after the interval when he drilled in the equaliser following a cutting pass through West Ham's back line from Park.

The Liverpudlian was clearly enjoying dragging United back almost single-handedly into this tough match and after 56 minutes his clever footwork in the box forced a corner out of his harassed opponents.

He sent the set piece over himself slap bang on to the head of John O'Shea.

His thundering header to meet Rooney's accurate corner was more than the kind of finish you'd expect from a defender to seal the victory.